This invention relates generally to jet transfer valves often used in fluidic systems and more particularly to a dual piezoelectric fluid jet transfer valve for easy and independent control of fluid flow.
Tyically, fluid jet transfer valves of the prior art have been of the mechanical type having a jet tube with a nozzle which is adjacent to two closely spaced ports aligned to selectively receive a jet stream of fluid from the nozzle when the nozzle is slightly deflected to different positions. The jet may be diverted or deflected as by outside means such as an airstream, movable orifice, the jet tube may be bent, or the jet may be disrupted to change the "free-air" flow stream into one or the other of the spaced ports. Further some jet transfer valves are controlled by merely interrupting the jet stream. Two types of mechanically bent jet tubes are known to the inventor, one being an electromagnet or solenoid attached to the tube for moving it from one port to the other. The other is a piezoelectric bender tube that may be bimorphic that is two piezoelectric U-shaped bars may be cemented together to form a tube, or a unitary tube may be formed that is polarized radially so as to bend in a plane. In summary, each of the prior art devices shows only one movable jet transfer valve with one control means that can be moved to impinge upon either of two ports.